Sultan's claims baseless, tasteless: Tapan

Sports Adviser Tapan Chowdhury yesterday termed the allegations made against him by Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president SA Sultan as 'baseless'.
The sports adviser also told reporters during the prize giving ceremony of the Victory Day judo competitions that Sultan's remarks against the media was of 'bad taste'.
Sultan lodged complaints against the sports adviser in a letter to the National Sports Council chairman and Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed on Thursday, sparking more controversy as the contents of the letter were published in most of yesterday's newspapers.
A war of words had begun between the sports boss of the country and the BFF chief last week, which led to Sultan's outburst and threat to resign from his post.
"I had talked about the poor state of the game and the activities of the BFF. I never attacked anyone personally. But he (Sultan) has attacked me personally. This is mindless and cheap," Tapan told.
"The way the BFF has been trying to form the DFAs will not develop the game in the country. We have always told that the federation and the government must co-exist but the federation's explanations regarding this have been upsetting," he added.
Sultan claimed in his letter that the sports adviser used his 'family' TV channel ETV to wage the war.
"This thing about the TV channel is completely baseless," said Tapan, dismissing another accusation that he has avoided meeting the BFF officials.
"The federation officials met me at different times. I always try to attend people when they want to meet me. I also inaugurated the professional football league. So it is not right that I have not given them time.
"His (Sultan) remarks about the media are tasteless. The duty of the media is to report and make sports more popular. This type of comment is unacceptable."
Meanwhile, the rumours around the resignation of Sultan strengthen last night.
The BFF's adjourned meeting on Wednesday will resume today and the BFF president is expected to tender his resignation in this meeting to put an end to the rumour of the last few days.
It can be noted that Anwarul Hoque Helal, the general secretary of the executive committee, resigned a few months earlier. Last year, vice-president Kazi Salahuddin also stepped down.